Canada and Seychelles winner of Tourmag Tourism Awards for 2013

Jean Da Luz and his son and partner Fabien Da Luz of the known and respected TourMag.com hosted hundreds of tourism professionals in the Paris VIP Room to announce the winners of the Tourism Awards fo

Jean Da Luz and his son and partner Fabien Da Luz of the known and respected TourMag.com hosted hundreds of tourism professionals in the Paris VIP Room to announce the winners of the Tourism Awards for 2013.

This award ceremony coincided with the annual Top Resa Tourism Trade Fair bringing again the world of tourism to Paris.

Expectations and tension filled the packed room as Fabien Da Luz announced the nominations for the first category for the evening which was destination offices. The winners voted by the tourism professionals of France went to Canada and Seychelles.

It was a proud Bernadette Willemin, the Seychelles Tourism Board Director for Europe, who went on stage to receive the trophy from Jean Da Luz to the applause of everyone present.

Speaking after the award ceremony, Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture, who was leading the Seychelles delegation to Top Resa 2013, said that he was proud to see a Seychelloise pull the trophy of Best Tour Manager 2013. “We are honored that a respected tourism publication has today announced that Seychelles is a joint winner of the Best Tourism Office Manager Award. On behalf of the government of Seychelles, I say congratulations to our Bernadette Willemin. She has done Seychelles and the people of Seychelles proud,โ€ Minister St.Ange said.

Seychelles is one tourism destination posting their own tourism professionals to manage their Tourism Board Offices in their key tourism markets. Bernadette Willemin, a born and bred Seychelloise, was promoted a couple of years ago from being the France Manager to the position of Director for Europe.

“Tourism is a people’s industry, and we needed to ensure that our people play their rightful place everywhere possible. Our managers in our Tourism Board Offices must showcase who we are, and no one can better do that than one of us,” said the Seychelles Minister for Tourism and Culture in Paris.

Tourism is the key industry of the mid-ocean tropical islands of the Seychelles, and they have shown that their industry is working even when their key markets are experiencing economic difficulties. To date, on a year-to-year basis as of the month of September, Seychelles is recording a 13% increase in visitor arrival numbers.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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